Dancing with a stranger
by Swamp-Eyes
Summary: [ONESHOT] In a post meteor decaying world, at late night in her bar, a tired Tifa receives a misterious but intriguing visit. TifaSeph hints


**Dancing with a stranger**

* * *

Who is the third one who walks always beside you?  
When I count, there are only you and I together  
But when I look ahead up the white road  
There is always another one walking beside you  
Gliding wrapt in a brown mantle, hooded  
I do not know whether a man or a woman  
- But who is that on the other side of you? 

(T.S. Eliot, _The wasteland)_

* * *

Tifa yawned heavily while rubbing her eyes.  
She was literally being asleep on her feet.  
She heard her dishwasher, Tina, singing softly the song the radio was transmitting. Beside, the song was nothing exceptional. 

Just an hell life.

Tifa unceremoniously threw the dust-cloth on the counter, then she glanced at her two last clients of the day.  
The first one was a man, completely drunken probably, who had fallen asleep on the table (and as it was not enough, he was snoring, too..). The second one was one of those usual men-in-dark. They were just so annoying.  
Just so _disgusting_.

Strange story, anyway, the one of the men-in-dark.And in the very moment she was thinking about it, another one of them made his/her entrance in her bar.  
But sure this one was a woman. It was clear from her way of walking, her posture… "Who do you think you're making a fool, idiot.." thought Tifa with scorn.  
She didn't fear them. Not _anymore_, at least.  
It was just an idiot legend. A stupid anecdote.

In that hell world.

Even though, she had to admit that the idea of dressing up like one of them had caressed her more than one time. That idea just _intrigued _her.

It was the _God_, the One walking around dressed up in that way.

Or at least, that was what they said.  
The God always walked around among them, wrapped in a black cape, a cloak on His head. It was difficult to see the men-in-dark's faces: they always walked with their heads low.  
As for she, she just thought that was psychology. Pure Psychology.  
For how improbable it was, it never was completely impossible that the man-in-dark standing in front of you was the _real _one, the God. She herself couldn't be sure about having never encounter the God anywhere.

The God..  
She was calling _Him _the God..  
What an horrible statement.  
Though, after four years, she just couldn't help it.  
It was on everyone's mouth. The God showed up here yesterday. I saw the God. The God here, the God there.

Was she really living that way? Without doing anything?

The woman-in-dark sat quite near the other man-in-dark.

Tifa had got accustomed to the life she was living. Accustomed to that hell life in an hell world.  
How many people _did _have the hobby of dressing up like men-in-dark just to scare other people and to commit free massacres? Disgusting. All was desolating. The only break for her routine were the periodical aggressions in her bar.  
The men-in-dark just pointed their gun at her forehead, took away all the money in her bar, and finally devastated it till the last glass, to then go away laughing like mad.  
And she could do nothing except crying her heart out, while the bruises she got when she tried to react flamed.  
It was so useless fighting alone against 20 people, now that she wasn't in her gold-time anymore, better still, it was _noxious_.

Actually, by now she was blind in one eye. From two years, to be precise.  
A wrong stab, and there it was: she had become blind.  
Since there were not actually plenty of doctors to heal her, and her magic was dying off, she was resigned to remain like that all her life. By the way, she didn't need two eyes to live that kind of life. One was already too much.

What was giving her the strength to keep going?  
Love? Hate? Or was it just _inertia_?

While she was hearing the clinging of the dishes, she looked at the clock.  
1 A.M.  
It was late, she wanted to close the bar, she was tired.

She passed over the counter, and reached the sleeping-drunken man's table, grasping the three void glasses. In that moment, she remembered of the woman-in-dark.

- May I prepare you something? - Tifa asked her bored. The woman didn't even move. She was staring intensely at the other man-in-dark.  
- Fuck you, then.. - Tifa hissed while returning to the counter  
- Here, Tina. - she passed all the glasses to the girl, who caught them still singing. She was such a flippant girl… but she was one of her few friends.

Tifa, exhausted, leaned her forehead on the cold counter. It would be such a bother to make those three go away.. The sleeping one especially.

Sure, the man-in-dark was the most curious one. He had been there for hours, but had said nothing except his order: a glass of water. Which, by the way, was still on his table half-full.  
Tifa, almost waving, reached his table thinking that if he couldn't even drink a glass of water, he could not really be dangerous in any way. "So not an alcoholic. How reassuring." she smirked.

But just… _something_..

- Ehy. I'm closing in a few minutes - Tifa felt like talking to a wall. Had he just heard her or what?  
One thing in particular about those men-in-dark really got on her nerves: you could never say how old were they. So insufferable.

Another song started. A slow song, this time.  
Tifa heard Tina's enthusiastic voice saying something like "Oh Lord that's my favourite one! I just _love_ this song!", while raising the volume.  
Tifa rolled her eyes, then tried to go away from the man-in-dark's table.

She almost collapsed when she felt a grip on her wrist.  
She turned to the man, her eyes wide open.

- Dance with me - he said.

That voice..

Nothing to complain about it: a beautiful voice. A really beautiful one.

Ok, now at least she was sure that one actually _was_ a man. And he had to be quite young, too  
°°Dance with me..°° this was so typical of a pervert..

- I would say there's really no point in it… - Tifa replied strictly, trying to get rid of the man's grip, to discover it was impossible.  
"This was scaring.." She ran her free hand through her black messy hair, and bit her lip.

She looked for a second at the woman-in-dark, who was staring at her without doing anything, and then she turned to Tina, who was singing while washing the glasses..  
"It's not really necessary getting upset now.." she told herself. Still, she _was _getting upset in a way. There was something, impossible to say what exactly, which she felt was _wrong_. But maybe, it was just the usual men-in-dark's psychological influence..

Beside, what the hell did men find in her?  
Sure, she had been very beautiful once, but now… Now she was terribly neglected. She hadn't cut her hair for four years, except her fringe, which irritated her when it became to long. She had totally forgotten what make-up was. She had an horrible scar on her blind eye. She dressed up always in the most slovenly way.  
And _still_, men seemed fascinated by her, and tried to approach her in all the possible ways.

- You would say there's really no point in it.. - the man echoed her with his velvet voice. But there was not only velvet in it. There were _metal_ and _ice_, somewhere.

Tifa immediately became aware of being attracted by that voice. It was _charming_.  
"Speak again" she thought suddenly.

- Dance with me.

What was that? Not a question, not an order.

- I'm not your slave or your concubine. I'm the owner of this bar. Now let me go.

She felt that the grip on her wrist was loosening. She caught the occasion an instantly withdrew her hand. "Finally.."  
But she just stood there.  
"Well now Tifa you're plunging your head into trouble _willingly_. Why don't you just go away? This is a pervert… a psycho.."

Then she heard the man laughing lowly, in a relaxed way.  
-You said you wanted to go. But you're still here. So you really want to dance with me.

- Really not.. Now I'm out of this.  
"Say something else. I like your voice.. Terribly like it."

The man began cracking his knuckles.  
- Tifa Lockheart, the woman who had tried to save the world, stuck working in this dreary bar for the rest of her life. Cruel destiny, eh. I have had this little desire about seeing you since a while, you know..?

Tifa stared shocked at him. For a while she didn't say a word. She looked around her, but the situation in her bar was the same of five minutes ago. And the slow song was still far from ending.

- Just _who are you_? - she asked.

The man laughed a little.  
- Well, you see the way I'm dressed. Black cloak, hidden face. I am the God. - he was so quiet.

Tifa rolled her eyes.  
- Yeah, yeah, sure.. - she joked. Despite, she _did _feel a strange tension raising in her chest. That certain something which was wrong had not yet disappeared.

The God..

Why on Earth should _that _man have been the God?  
And, beside, why on Earth _shouldn't _he?

- The God, eh? If you say that one more time, I'll take it as true and I'll kill you. - she said sharply.

The atmosphere was strangely hovering between reality and unreality. The man smiled. Or did something vaguely resembling a smile.  
- So, will you dance with me, or are we waiting this way until the song is finished?

That was the third and last time.  
His voice, the song, it was an infatuating mix.  
But, _basically_, even if she didn't understand why, she felt like having no alternatives.

- So be it, _God. - _Tifa stretched out her hand to him - Let's dance.

The man lowered slowly his head, then he removed one of his gloves. He had thin, almost bony fingers; but, more surprisingly, they were completely lacking any kind of wound, thing that was really strange considering the terrible period the world was living that times.  
He leaned his hand on Tifa's, and then squeezed it softly.  
Tifa became slightly confused. While the man was standing up and she had her eyes fixed on those familiar boots coming out from his cape, she cleared her throat perplexed.

She was going to dance with a stranger.  
What the big idea had she had?  
She really had nothing better to do, then..

Tifa couldn't help feeling a bit uncomfortable in the very moment the man circled her thin waist with his arms.  
For just a second, she managed to catch a glimpse of the man's feature, under the shadow of his hood.

A sexy chin, a _silver _glow.

Then she found herself leaning her forehead on his shoulder. The man was taller than her. _Much _taller, actually.  
But, Lord, the _wrongness _in this.

Tifa cleared her throat again, stirred a little between his arms, and then placed slowly and cautiously both her hands on his back, moving them in an explorative way for some seconds, feeling his shoulder-blades under the leather of the cloak, as if this could have helped her understanding who the hell that man was. _As if_. Because actually, it didn't.  
She was so much into the man's back, that she barely noticed they were dancing. If you could call that waving nonsensically a few inches to the right and to the left dancing.

It was another thing, right now, catching her mind: that body.. the _coldness _it transmitted..

- You could engage yourself into this a little bit more, Tifa Lockheart.. - the man whispered ironically, lowering just a little towards her ear.

Tifa stiffened a little, and, clinging to the leather on his back, she spoke near his neck, while she was on her tiptoe, a sarcastic but somewhat angry smile on her lips.  
- Another cutting remark like this, and you will find yourself smacked to the ground. _Dead_, of course.

- So you think that killing me will be as easy as saying it. - the man replied almost amused.

- Surely I think that this crappy dress is a sort of self-protection because, despite all, it keeps people away.

- The theory actually does make sense. - the man approved with his intriguing voice.

- Tifa? What the heck are you doing! - Tifa heard Tina's bewildered voice, but hadn't the slightest intention to reply. So the girl started again singing. Knowing her, she had resolved the problem with a shoulder-shrug.

- But, after all… - the man was speaking again, and Tifa was already completely absorbed by his words. - ..I find it interesting. You can never be sure of who's the one in front of you..

- I find it a _cowardice_, instead… - she instigated him.

- How should I read this? Are you indirectly affirming I'm a coward?

- Tell me who you are. - Tifa went for it again, always nearer to his neck, the only part of his body she was able to see.

- I already told you.

- That was just a lie.

- Are you sure?

She bit her lips, fell silent.  
_Was she?  
_Not actually. Maybe not at all. Or maybe not at all without any maybe. Whatever.  
- Couldn't be surer - she lied, unintentionally touching his neck with her lips. "Hell, Tifa! This is a stranger _if not worse_!" she scolded herself.

"Because he cannot be _Him_"  
She shivered at the idea. "Better not even _think _about this"

- Are you the God? - she couldn't contain the urge of asking it again.

And he _laughed_.  
Then he set his hand on the back of her neck, and placed his lips directly on her ear.  
- I thought you were sure I wasn't.

Provoking.  
This was getting too far. But she was sure it was nothing she couldn't handle.  
_Maybe._

- I'll repeat it. If you really are _Him_, I'm out of this instantly. And I _kill _you.

- _Him_? Him who? - the man was bemused, his voice too smart to let Tifa cool down.

Tifa tried to peer without any success under his cloak.  
- You cant be _Se_..

- Ehy ehy ehy… - the man interrupted her with a sort of laughter. - You should know very well that name is forbidden.

- I couldn't care less. Beside, that doesn't mean I cant kill you. - Tifa tried to make her voice as harsh as possible. Though, she couldn't say if she had reached her aim or not.

- Are you sure you _want _to? - the man remarked - Why don't you just stay here a little longer with me?

Stay here.  
It was like a sudden stab in her heart.  
An horrible memory. "Not now."  
_Cloud.  
_"Not now. Go away. Away away away.  
You just don't exist. Don't. Not. You don't."

Suddenly the man placed softly his hand on her good eye.  
She wasn't sure whether this was relaxing her or making her even more upset.  
Now she was completely blind. All was black.

- Now what the hell.. - she tried to push him away.  
She realised that being blind made her feel completely defenceless.

- Just as I thought. - he said quietly. His beautiful voice actually calmed her down just a little. - You're blind in one eyes.

- And _how_ did you..  
In that hell world, this was the first person who had noticed it by himself. It was not easy to notice, but neither impossible, too. That pupil was kind of blurred, melted in her red iris. Sure a great attention was needed to catch the difference between the two eyes.

And _Him_..  
She was slightly shocked.

- Tifa Lockheart… _Tifa_.. what an unfortunate life.. - the man now covered her blind eye with the other hand, breaking the hug.

She gripped his cloak confused  
- What are you… stay off with those hands.. I can't see anything.. I…  
She stirred a little more. That darkness was upsetting her.

Not knowing _who _was in front of her.. With that bewildering vague _suspicion_..

Then that _stabbing _pain.  
One of the worst pains she had ever experimented, _there_, on her blind eye.  
A pain which penetrated even her brain, to then spread into all her nerves, a pain which was so violent she couldn't cry out.

- See you whenever you wish, then. Goodnight, Lockheart. - _that _voice, for the last time.  
Then, any physical contact with the man faded away.

The pain was still so hard that Tifa, swaying in the dark, barely managed to crash on the table, and broke down on it unceremoniously.  
Still blind, she heard her bar's door opening, the closing again, accompanied by the wind-chime's clinging.

The man was gone.  
And with him, all her pain.

But she couldn't dare to remove her fingers, which were pressed on her eye.  
- Shit.. - she muttered, almost with tears in her eyes.

- Tifa? - Tina was examining her perplexed - Is it all okay?  
"Now surely she must be thinking I'm an utter idiot.."

Tifa opened her eyes, and panicked.  
Instantly, she closed them again.

"What the hell..?"

She couldn't have dreamt it.  
There _actually _had been something different from usual.  
Her heart was bumping.

She opened her eyes again, closed them.

"Oh Hell."

She covered her good eyes with her hand. She opened the other one.  
The table. The water-glass.  
Impossible.  
The woman-in-dark, the drunken man, Tina.

Rolling it was painful, the light was painful.

She closed it. Darkness. Opened it again. Table, glass, woman-in-dark.

"Oh _Hell_."  
She closed it, opened it.  
"Hell."  
She stayed there like an idiot, a hand on her good eye, while rotating the other one to the left and to the right.

- Teef?-

Because now the _good eyes _and the _blind eyes _didn't exist anymore.  
She could see perfectly. The God…  
With an uncontrolled impulse Tifa flung herself to the door, the wind chime clinging violently, and she started screaming at the top of her voice

- _Sephiroooooth_! - it was a deafening, angry, somewhat hoarse shrill. She bruised her lunges whit it.  
But outside, there was only the blue snow falling delicately, covering all. No tracks on the ground. Freezing air. Utter silence.

She felt mad. She had just pronounced The Name… The Name.. _His _Name..  
She re-entered, ran to _His _table, grabbed the water-glass, _His _water-glass, drank it till the last drop in one gulp. _The God_. The God with the _unpronounceable _name.

That sexy chin. That _silver _glow.

She smashed violently the glass to the ground, breaking it into smithereens.  
Thousands smithereens everywhere, which glittered like crystals. Smithereens of what?

- Damn. _Damn_. DAMN..- _That _man. Her _ruined _life.

Tina was now staring at her in between shocked and fascinated.  
- You're just not okay, are you..? - she asked perplexed

- You know. It's snowing outside. - Tifa said as nothing had happened.

- Oh. Great. - Tina replied, still trying to understand what the heck was going on there.

_Sephiroth._

Tifa kneeled down, and picked up cautiously one of the glass-smithereens. She stared at it intensely, then put it in her pocket.  
Sephiroth.

**The End**

* * *

**Author'sNotes:**It's so hard writing in English! Forgive me for the language, it's just not my tongue! Eh..TifaSeph is so wrong. But I like it somehow... Beside, I love only wrong pairings... I hope you liked the story... any TifaSeph fan out there?  
Anyway, it would be great if you sended me any type of constructive criticism, just to know if I have only wasted my time... 

To my reviewers and readers: you're right when you make me notice this is slight AU. Probably it is. I guess in this story the ending of FFVII is turned upside down, because here it seems that Sephiroth wasn't defeated, and actually became a God, as he had intended. Perhaps, that would have been a great ending, after all.

Swamp-Eyes.


End file.
